You Can Help Make California Its Own Country

No man is an island, but the California National Party wants this state to be its own country.

The secessionists, who have been recognized as “a political party attempting to qualify” by California’s Secretary of State, say they are petitioning Governor Jerry Brown “to start negotiations for California to become independent from the United States.”

“We will no longer be a ‘state,’ but our own nation, with our own banking, military, government, business, education, healthcare and justice systems,” says the CNP. “It’s legal. We can do this with consent from the U.S. government. Congress can pass a bill that would renounce our statehood and allow us to become a new nation.”

The Sacramento-based CNP–which is not to be confused with Yes California, the fringe movement that pushed for a Brexit-style “Calexit” after Donald Trump was elected president–had fewer than 1,000 members as of January, according to state officials, although the party contends its membership is double that.

Why do we need a People’s Republic of California?

“We are the fifth largest economy in the WORLD, behind only the U.S., China, Japan and Germany,” states the CNP. “California taxes, resources, land and exports are currently being stolen by the U.S. We have NO representation in government and have no effect whatsoever on elections.”

Are you with them or, at least, interested in them? Go to californianational.party to learn more about the movement, buy merch, make donations or–what they’d really like you to do–sign their petition to split from a certain fizzling superpower.

Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the paper’s first calendar editor. He went on to be managing editor, executive editor and is now senior staff writer.